1,200.00 Roman miles
Palatine Hill, Rome
From the center of the Great Island to the Fountain of the Pelte on the Palatine, where Romulus marked out the sacred boundary of Rome.
41.887793, 12.486585
Paradise has been found.
It has been waiting beneath you to be discovered all along.
It was built into the earth for us to recognize. When we recognize the order, we can recreate it.
The Cosmos is the first book to document the order of the world, and the first to document the way back.
Lake Rubikiai, Anykščiai
The Center of it All
Kosmos meant order. The ancients gave the word to the Earth they arranged.
The book
To the ancient Greeks, kosmos meant order: the world arranged in harmony. In the earliest age of humanity, a civilization gave that order a physical form. It placed springs, mountains, temples and sacred cities in exact relationship to one another, and the pattern reached across every continent.
This ordered Earth was the cosmos: safe harbors and gardens of plenty, where people lived in harmony with the land, the celestial realm and one another. The paradise every culture remembers was a real place.
Drawing on history, sacred texts, mythology, linguistics and science, The Cosmos reads the world's myths as history told through hyperbole. Eden, Olympus, Hyperborea and the Golden Age become one memory, told in many languages. The goddess Lada of the Baltic midsummer songs is the mother the Greeks called Leto and the Romans Latona.
Paradise was built through order and cooperation, and it is rebuilt the same way. The path back is together.
How it was found
Whole numbers, again and again
When I first began mapping the mounds, stones, lakes and other sites around the Great Island of Lake Rubikiai, units of length we were told were created in the modern era kept measuring in whole numbers. It happened too often to be chance.
Ancient myths and modern scholars echo the same idea: the temples of the Golden Age of Mankind were defined by a temple on an island at the center of the world. Greek writers placed a round temple of Apollo on an island beyond the north wind. Renaud Gagné of the University of Cambridge has traced how central that northern land was to the Greek picture of the world, and Jean Richer mapped the sanctuaries of Greece in patterns radiating outward from sacred centers.
I had been fortunate to travel through Europe, and I remembered the founding stories of its ancient cities. So I measured to them.
1,200.00 Athenian ladas
Lycabettus Hill, Athens
The highest point of Athens, placed by Athena herself to mark the polis, the central pole of the city. The Athenian lada is a mile built from the ratio of the Athenian foot.
37.981969, 23.743425
1,000.00 Parisian ladas
Temple de la Sibylle, Paris
The temple stands atop an ancient quarry identified as the source of stone for the oldest structures of Paris. The Parisian lada is a mile built from the ratio of the king's foot.
48.881092, 2.383064
Measure it yourself
The discovery does not ask for your faith. Every measurement can be verified right now. By you.
The mapping tools are listed below for you to verify and explore for yourself. I urge you to do this.
Starting point: the Great Island
55°30’26.162” N, 25°17’5.755” E
- Open Google Maps on a computer and paste the coordinate.
- Right-click the point and choose Measure distance.
- Click the second site, or paste one of the coordinates above.
- To convert to an ancient unit, divide by its length in the table below.
| Unit | Built from | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Roman mile | 1,000 paces of 5 Roman feet | 0.9195 statute miles1,479.8 m |
| Athenian ladaAthenian mile | The Athenian foot, 1.0108 English feet (30.81 cm), scaled to a mile | 1.0108 statute miles1,626.8 m |
| Parisian ladaParisian mile | The pied du roi, the king's foot of Paris, 1.066 English feet (32.49 cm), scaled to a mile | 1.066 statute miles1,715.6 m |
Mapping tools
- Google MapsMeasure the distance between any two points.
- Google EarthExplore the sites in 3D and measure with the ruler tool.
- Apollo MappingHigh-resolution satellite imagery of any site.
- Airbus satellite imageryAirbus Earth-observation imagery.
- USGS EarthExplorerFree public-domain satellite images from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Buy the book
Available now
332 pages, with photographs and satellite images of the sacred sites. Proceeds support organizations that preserve the remaining sacred sites and the living traditions still connected to them.
Also available to order from any bookstore by ISBN.
The series
The first of several books
The order in the earth runs through every nation, and no single book could document it all. The Cosmos is a primer. It teaches you to recognize the order surrounding you, and it lights the path back.
BOOK ONE
The Cosmos
The ordered Earth, and where paradise was.
FORTHCOMING
Sacred Order of the Soul
The same order, read in the individual.
FORTHCOMING
The False Prophets of Paradise
How humanity was divided, and how it reunites.
FORTHCOMING
Climate and the Earth
The world passed to the next generations, and its restoration.
FORTHCOMING
The Living Traditions
The cultures and practices kept alive by indigenous peoples worldwide, some for tens of thousands of years. Their stories told from their own perspectives.
FORTHCOMING
The Cosmos of Every Continent
The order mapped extensively on every continent, one volume at a time.
Learn more
The wisdom keepers of the world
The cosmos is kept alive by the peoples, languages and traditions that still hold its memory. These organizations preserve them and welcome your support.
The world's traditions
- Parliament of the World's ReligionsThe oldest global interfaith gathering, begun in Chicago in 1893.
- United Religions InitiativeGrassroots interfaith circles in more than 100 countries.
- The Pluralism Project, HarvardStudy of the world's religious traditions and how they live side by side.
Indigenous peoples and their rights
ID 478141980 © Petr Goskov | Dreamstime.com
- Cultural SurvivalIndigenous-led advocacy, community radio and language work since 1972.
- Survival InternationalA global movement for tribal peoples' lands and lives.
- IWGIAInternational Work Group for Indigenous Affairs: research and advocacy.
- UN Indigenous PeoplesThe United Nations' forum on indigenous issues.
Languages, stories and living heritage
ID 7839409 © Lucian Coman | Dreamstime.com
- WikitonguesRecordings of every language in the world, made by its speakers.
- Living Tongues InstituteHelping communities document and revitalize endangered languages.
- Endangered Languages ProjectA shared map and archive of the world's threatened languages.
- Endangered Languages ArchiveA digital archive of recordings of endangered languages and cultures.
- UNESCO Intangible HeritageSongs, rituals, festivals and crafts protected as living heritage.
- Smithsonian FolklifeThe Smithsonian's center for folklife and cultural heritage.
Sacred lands and places
“Uluru/Ayers rock” by Ek2030372672, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
- Nia TeroSupporting indigenous guardianship of their lands and waters.
- Native Land DigitalA map of indigenous territories, languages and treaties.
- Sacred Land Film ProjectStories of sacred places and the peoples who protect them.
- Amazon Conservation TeamPartnering with Amazonian peoples to protect forests and culture.
- World Monuments FundPreserving endangered heritage sites around the world.
- UNESCO World HeritageThe list of the world's protected cultural and natural sites.
The Baltic tradition
ID 196333430 © Zydrius Tartenis | Dreamstime.com
- Institute of Lithuanian Literature and FolkloreThe national archive of Lithuanian songs, tales and folk tradition.
- RomuvaThe living Baltic tradition of Lithuania.
Press and events
Interviews, talks and site visits
Shawn Cabral is available for interviews, podcasts and talks, and for guided visits to the sites around Anykščiai and Lake Rubikiai. A media kit with the press release, author Q&A and images is available on request.